The prevalence and population density of the mycobiota of 50 samples belonging to 10 kinds of spices (anise, black pepper, red pepper, black cumin, peppermint, cardamom, clove, cumin, ginger and marjoram) which collected from different places in Jeddah Governorate were studied. The natural occurrence of mycotoxins in those samples was also investigated. Fifteen genera and thirty - one species o...

Acrylamide is an undesirable carcinogenic component of thermally processed foods arising from reducing saccharides and asparagine at the temperature more than 120 °C. The acrylamide content in food could be influenced by many factors such as temperature, time, water content, pH and matrix constituents. Recently, antioxidants such as phenolic compounds, flavonoids, vitamins and phenolic extracts...

Recently we reported the comparative studies on the production and accumulation of phenylpropanoids in plants and in cell cultures of anise [1, 2]. It was shown that cell cultures did not produce anethole, the main constituent in the fruit oil of anise, but instead regularly epoxy-pseudoisoeugenol(2-methylbutyrate). We first identified this unusually substituted phenylpropanoid in the root of P...

The sedative activity of eight aromatic natural medicines that are traditionally used in Japanese scent sachets was examined using an open field test with mice. Galangal (Kaempferia galanga), patchouli (Pogostemon cablin), sandalwood (Santalum album), spikenard (Nardostachys chinensis), cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia), clove (Syzygium aromaticum), star anise (Illicium verum), and borneol (Dryobala...

The antibacterial activity of essential oils hydrodistilled from local anise, coriander, cumin, marjoram, rosemary and thyme were screened against a group of food-borne pathogens comprising Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium and Bacillus cereus. All the tested bacterial strains displayed varying degrees of susceptibi...

Essential oils from anise, hyssop, thyme, ginger, camomile and sandalwood were screened for their inhibitory effect against herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) in vitro on RC-37 cells using a plaque reduction assay. Genital herpes is a chronic, persistent infection spreading efficiently and silently as sexually transmitted disease through the population. Antiviral agents currently applied for t...

Natural products, known for their medicinal properties since antiquity, are continuously being studied for their biological properties. In the present study, we analyzed the composition of the volatile preparations of essential oils of the Greek plants Ocimum basilicum (sweet basil), Mentha spicata (spearmint), Pimpinella anisum (anise) and Fortunella margarita (kumquat). GC/MS analyses reveale...

Aim of the present study was the comparative evaluation of the effect of ground oregano, anise and olive leaves as feed additives on performance and some egg quality characteristics of laying Japanese quails. A total of 189 Coturnix japonica quails (126 females and 63 males), 149 days old, were randomly allocated into seven equal groups with three subgroups of 9 birds each (6 females and 3 male...

Different doses of 12 plant extracts and 6 secondary plant metabolites were incubated for 24 h in diluted ruminal fluid with a 50:50 forage:concentrate diet. Treatments were: control (no additive), plant extracts (anise oil, cade oil, capsicum oil, cinnamon oil, clove bud oil, dill oil, fenugreek, garlic oil, ginger oil, oregano oil, tea tree oil, and yucca), and secondary plant metabolites (an...

Edible films (EFs) have gained great interest due to their ability to keep foods safe, maintaining their physical and organoleptic properties for a longer time. The aim of this work was to develop EFs based on a chitosan-zein mixture with three different essential oils (EOs) added: anise, orange, and cinnamon, and to characterize them to establish the relationship between their structural and p...